Do science fiction books predict the future?

Throughout existence, many sci-fiction books have been writing, one of the most popular writers is Jules Verne that wrote great literary works like, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Around the World in Eighty Days. These books were written around the IXX Century so that were science fiction by the time, these books predicted big technological advances and discoveries like the first trip to the moon that came to happen in July of 1969 commanded by Neil Armstrong. It was a big step for the humanity and it was written a century before. What do you think about it? Is the sci-fiction a predictor of the future? or inspires to the investigators to make it real?

February 17, 2018, 11:47 am

Responses (83)

I wouldn't say that science fiction predicts the future. It does make guesses about the future based on current technological advances, and wishful thinking. I think it may also set goals for inventors, much like how Star Trek was the inspiration for cell phones and tablets etc.

The fact that science fiction writing started booming at a time where we were only starting to make these big technological advances such as the computer, or submarines, or even a satellite sent into space, to me proves that these discoveries fuelled the science fiction industry. Man has been wondering about outer space since the dawn of time, and suddenly reaching out and getting closer to it made dreams of living on Mars or alien existence even more plausible.

I wouldn't say they predict the future, but certain sci fi novels seem to be pretty close to predicting scenarios that happen in the future. I am thinking of 1984 in particular which seems to have some parallels to today's world. AI the movie seems to be something that could conceivably happen to in the not so distant future.

I'm not a science freak and that is the reason I don't think too much or what they write no matter how predictive they try to make their words sound. I always try to know how possible such matters can be. I mean when you take a good look at some of their predictions especially the one they said that the world is ending at a a certain date and it didn't come to pass, you will realize that some of the protections that they make can't be taken all that serious.

They don't actually predict the future. The writers for those movies you mentioned might have consulted experts like scientists and engineers first before coming up with fictional ideas. Moreover, there are also movie or TV series writers who do hypotheses by themselves about what's going to happen in the world, and incorporate it to their craft. Of course, this is based on facts and on what they actually see in their surroundings, by which we, commoners can do as well.

In today's progress in technological advancement, some scientists might have already come up with an idea or an invention that's going to be commercialized in the 24th century. These people do not actually show the blueprint of their inventions but only the idea, the functions and how they work. This might be the opportunity being taken for granted by writers for them to at least be scientific with the movie story for example they are about to write.

Yeah, some science fiction books are created by people who know the current theories and incorporate them into their story, so in a way there is a level of truth to the stories, which makes it possible to happen in the future.

There are a lot of science fiction content coming from various individuals with great imagination, and so from the sheer amount of these concepts, at least some of them will no doubt be a reality in the future. On the other hand, some of the technology that we have today are simply invented because their developers were actually inspired by these books. It's real life imitating art.

Yeah, right, Some crazy gadgets from fiction story or sci fiction before become their motivation to make it reality. Some how out of the box the science fiction writer predict the future, in terms of idea and become inspiration by a lot of company right now to develop that gadget.

Yeah, especially for popular sci-fi stories, big companies will want to be the first to develop their own version of that device at it will definitely sell even if it doesn't work as well as other gadgets.

Yes lot of things turned out to be true from the science fiction books. For example, mobile phone, gaming, virtual reality, feminism, communism etc. Lot of those things were predicted and those turned out to be true. It seems like a lot of writers have proper vision of future.

Yeah, while those subjects are kind of scary to think about, good movies tackling such concepts can actually help awareness about the subject. In effect, people become more conscious of their actions so as not to reach a point where the movies become reality.

Yes. i hope that in future people do pay attention to what our ancestors wrote and did. Not all of their actions were wrong. In fact their actions were lot better in comparison. I guess we learn from the experience.

Yes, if we go back in history, during the early years of movie making we could see films that depict the future. And you could really see now that most of the scenes depicted in those old scifi flicks has come into reality.
So I think most scifi films now would also come to reality in the near future.

So are you saying that they predicted the future? Or are you saying that the idea was used as a basis for something that can now be created in real life?
I certainly think there is a difference between predicting the future and having an idea with the ambition and knowledge to being said idea to life.

I can't say that the right word is predict but Science explains what is going on in our planet and one best example is climate change. Science does explain what is the root cause and what can happen in the future and how can we prevent it. Basically, it can explain what are the consequences or effect of our lifestyle or technology in our future. It also can explain what can we expect and what is coming and how can we cope.

The more and more that you really look at some of the themes that are there, the more you really can start to see some things that might creep you out. I do know that almost daily I am drawing up some kind of references to the works of sci fi authors. I am not complaining and I enjoy it, but at the same time it is a little alarming.

I would say that science fiction books may or may not predict the future. But if the book writes about the latest modern era, the current life of mankind expressing the modern use of technology which are based on Science, then that might predict what could happen in the future. But if the content is more on fiction which is less showing scientific evidences and only expressing man's limitless imagination, then that would be far from reality.

I wouldn't exactly say that science fiction books necessarily "predict" the future, at least not in the "gypsy fortuneteller" sense of the word. The fact is that making great strides in the fields of science and technology also takes a degree of imagination. A lot of people think that scientific development is all about numbers, but without imagination you lack the ability to think outside the box and advance forward. Science fiction books which blur the lines between imagination and practical science have the ability to act as blueprints for future development.

DenisP,
Once again, as our forum relationship has gone for a year now (lol), I agree with you. I think that the creativity of the mind is also a pre-cursor to scientific invention or speculation. Fiction writers may not be engineers, and they may not be able to walk into a lab and manipulate the genome or create the next incarnation of an A.I. unit, but they can, because of their creativity and inspiration, imagine a future world which most likely COULD happen--or a similar world to what they envisioned could possibly happen. I respect genius in all of its forms, by I am no believer in gypsies and superstitions either.

No. Fiction novels do not predict the future. Let's just put it this way, an author with his wild imagination will take the reader into a realm of imagination. With a sparked idea, this may turn out a good discovery that stemmed from reading the book. Like an inspiration from the novel itself that was read by a determined individual that has the means to create it. And voila! the fiction has become a reality.

That is one possibility. Another possibility is a scientist that wants to create something has already thought of it without even reading the fictional book. I mean we all used to imagine things and from these great imaginations, some put it in writing and others tried to create them.

The word predict might sound out of ordinary but I think its just that Science base its outcomes by the events of the present happenings. Sometimes I would dream of getting to know the author and ask him/her a lot of questions just like fiction writers, it may sound ironic but I would want to ask " Are the events true?". It may sound hilarious but we never know, right?

I think that science fiction books somehow inspire the scientists and the developers into creating something that at the time when the book was written seems impossible to create. What really creeps me out is how "The Simpsons" series literally predicted the future in that episode about Trump election. That is a veritable future prediction. Back to our topic, it is an insignificant possibility that SF books actually predict the future.

I do not think that this genre of fiction predicts the future, but it does "imagine" it in very unique ways, especially depending on the individual writer at hand, and many different and fantastic futures have been created by science fiction writers over the years. I do want to say, though, that this genre does assume that certain technologies will exist, even before they do in reality, so, in some ways, this genre puts these ideas out into the general public mindset or zeitgeist, and that in itself, as a creative act, could possible change the course of science or history or both. Many of these writers seem to have a foresight into the future, but I do not see them as seers or oracles of any kind. I do see them, however, as examples of what the imagination is capable of and as testaments to human creativity beyond the boundaries of the mainstream sciences that we know of.

You have explained this well. There is a difference between prediction and imagination. The authors of si-fi books imagine, they actually do not predict the future. Interestingly, the imaginations are sometimes converted into reality.

vinaya,
Thanks for your compliment here. It is uncanny, though, when we see these writers and artists create things hundreds of years ago in their work, like Da Vinci's "helicopter" or Jules Verne's submarine, etc., and then years later these imaginative inventions actually become a reality! We are living in an age where technology is advancing in speed to such a velocity that eventually we will have a fictional idea on a Tuesday and it could become a reality by that weekend! It's a wild, interesting, and sometimes scary, time to be alive!

I love watching science fiction movies and reading science fiction books but I don't think that those movies or books can actually predict the future. I have watched so many movies about aliens and about scientists exploring other planets and despite so many technological advancements we have not been to the moon since 1972.

Part of the reason why we haven't returned to the moon yet is due to the number of resources it took for the previous missions, and at this point, we don't really have anything left to study about the moon necessitating a human expedition. It was really only a priority during the 60s/70s because of the rivalry between US and Russia. I think the plans right now is to build a station on the moon where we can launch a human expedition to Mars, and obviously, that is going to take a whole lot more resources and careful planning, so it will take some time.

In my own opinion, science fiction books cannot predict the future. There are many fiction books that is impossible to happen in reality. The advancement of our science and technology is based on the facts, evidences and data that is througly researched by our scientist. But maybe some of the Scientist and invetors might have gotten some of the ideas of some of their research and inventions through the fiction books.

Yes, I think they simply predicting some situation in the future, or even gadgets in some sci-fiction movies, books, or even comic. Look at some of the gadgets from the old star trek movie, we are using it right now. But of course, they will not accept that, until happens, maybe it's just a strategy for them to avoid to call them crazy.

The science fiction content is not real and I do not think it can predict the future, still, I think that this content may create the desire and inspiration for some people to try new and impossible things. People that try to invent and create new things need inspiration and some people can look for it everywhere.

Yeah, I have to agree with you. That's the thing with science fiction, it's classed as science fiction because it's not real. The chances of anything written in a science fiction book is extremely low but there may be sometimes when someone takes an idea and then gets inspired from it as well.

I think you may need to watch out some of the old TV series where a lot of them predicted use of the mobiles, computers and touch screen. That's what scifi content is all about. Now some movies in 90s predicted living on mars. That's something we have yet to be done. Thats science fiction future prediction.

I think lot of science fiction books turn out to be true. In past there were scifi books that said men will fall and women will take over civilization and then future will leads to collapse. We are already halfway there. Nuclear owned countries are in power too. So it seems like a lot of things that may affect in due process. That's what I have noticed in these days.

What I would say about science fiction books is that the writers try to copy what we have in our world today and twist it up to look intimidating and the end of men, but in truth it's what we have already, so I wouldn't say they are predicting the future, instead they are giving us what we have already but in a different version.

No. What is happening today was predicted in many comics books 20 years back. For example old superman comics had computers before computers were even invented. And also some of the social issues with communism and feminism was explained in superman red sun. So it seems like lot of future was predicted 50 years before.

I also believe that science fiction books dos not necessarily predict the future. Instead, they serve as an inspiration for developers to bring their imagination to life. Thus, by doing so they make the lives of everyone better. I think that those who wrote those science fiction books have no idea that one day what they imagined would become real;.

On contrary they do predict the future. Have you seen the comics in the 70s and 80s when the mobile phone, tablets and the communism and feminism was predicted? I am sure you would believe then. Because it's clearly shown in many books and comics.

The world fiction alone should tell you in common sense that it's all made up and not real. So therefore, there is no way it have the possibility of predicting the future. What I believe science fiction does it take what we have at this present moment and alienize it into making it a thing of the future but in reality, it's not true and certainly wouldn't come to existence.

That was the argument I was having with a pal sometime ago when he, being a science student, was saying that most of the prediction they make can go a long way in predicting the future. I really felt bad for him for his profession has blindfolded him. We have seen cases where these scientists make this predictions and still fail woefully in making it to come to reality. So, I agree with you that most of their predictions are simply made up.

Of course not. And all you have to do is to look at some television shows, movies or science fiction books that were made years ago to see that they do not predict the future at all. Many science fiction books or programs thought that we would have flying cars, robot butlers etc. by now and we are just not even close to this at all. We are still trying to get self driving cars working, flying cars will be a long while away.

The invention begins as a thought and when the thought develops into something concrete we call it an invention. For example, when Edison invented the light bulb, it began as a thought, he thought about something that can lighten up through electrical current. The science fiction books contain thought, if someone works on this concept, it might come up as an invention. Many things that we have today was actually imagined by writers of si-fi.

Not really, but when you have large amount of people (writers) coming up with futuristic ideas some of them are bound to be correct, even moreso if you start to stretch what they meant and what was actually achieved. That said it is indeed exciting to see what sort of "predictions" some people have managed to come up with, regardless of them being just lucky coincidences.

What an interesting question. Well, for me in some way scifi movies do predict our future. But at the same time, scifi movie sometimes only modify the discoveries already made by the inventors and scientists. To be specific, from the name itself SCIence FIctional movies both contain science amazing facts but for it to be more catchy to those viewers, writers sometimes add fictional elements on it. But at some point, Scifi movies are giving us also the possible view of our future which is already beyond our imagination.

Predicting the future in the past was a bit easier than it is now, because everyone could imagine something like a cellphone or a TV for example, even the concept of a smartphone, because they just upgraded similar technology that they had during that period, however as we are advancing technologically it gets harder to innovate and come up with new ideas, because a lot of inventions have already been created.

I do think science fiction is a work of visionaries and the things they envisioned in their works will eventually be realized in the future, this is proven by past science fiction literature written in early part of the 20th century which was validated in the present generation.

I personally don't think that science fiction books or movies predict the future but i do think that they take a concept that it already exist and make it more advanced like what it can become in future. So they talk about a thing that it doesn't exist yet but will possible be in future. Or maybe sometimes the science take ideas from books and put them in practice.

That's a great point. Also, movie producers and directors or writers of Science Fiction books sure do their researches well to make their plots more realistic, though not really that real, but could be close to what might happen in the future. Enlverything is possible with Science.

If you are a spiritual person you believe in the power of creation and intuition. I think using your imagination is a way of creating the life you want to live. Science fiction writes unknowingly create the future. It's also very easy if you follow popular culture to know what's going to happen or be hot tomorrow. This is simply what this writers do, not knowing that it could actually come true. Remember the saying what the mind can conceive it can achieve.

I don't think they can predict the future, but i think they can influence the future. Science fiction is created by imagination and is a creative interpretation of what might be in the future. Some technology came from science fiction and creative ideas. One of the significant technology that comes from pure science fiction is touch screen. Touch screen has been in movies on the past, creating it to reality was a testimony that technology is possible with a creative mind.

I think scientists have a plan on what they want to do even if it will take so many years to achieve it. And because of this, I won't agree that science fiction books is a prediction of the future. Actually it is a way of making potential and remaining scientists to know the plans of what is yet to be fulfilled. So that upcoming scientists will make it possible to achieve whatever was written by other scientists. Curiosity and other reasons will make scientists fulfill what was started by other scientists who could not be able to finish what they started.

I don't think it does predict the future. However, I think it does help inventors and scientists to kind of like conceptualize what they have to do in the coming years. I actually think that some of the things we have today are fruits of those sci-fi books and movies that have shown a lot of futuristic materials and innovations that during that time wasn't present. Although, I also think that maybe, those things in sci-fi books and movies are actually plans from scientists and inventors, and they're introducing those things before in order for us to be shocked or whatsoever. But yeah, I mainly think more of my first idea.

I think they do to some extent. The future is unpredictable. But I've found that some things never change. Rarely has there been things that changed fundamentally throughout time. But when they do, it's beautiful. I'd like to read one that can accurately paint a picture of tomorrow.

From the genre itself, fiction. So I don't believe fiction books can predict the future even it is all about science. I think science fiction books are just based on what the author had observed from reality, and they would only add some insights that we may encounter in the future based on what the author had studied. It is just a theory afterall. Theory can or can't be true. if it will come true, then he surely did a nice study and he has a creative mind.

I don't think they predict the future. I think it could be just coincidence. It's because the concepts on those books you've mentioned are quite common and they will inevitably happen in the future. What I mean is even if they don't write those books, these things will surely happen as mankind progresses.

I really like science fiction because they always present something new and unique that either makes life convenient through futuristic discoveries or changes our perception of life itself. Science Fiction are ideas of unreachable goals and dreams that are presently unattainable but through innovation and discoveries these ideas in time would become feasible so I guess Science Fiction is one way of predicting the future.

I don't think that science fiction can actually predict the future but I do believe those writers can see what human could do in the future. They know that in the long run human will discover many things and our technologies will be unstoppable. And sometimes I observe in many science fiction movies they will try to imitate or copy the technologies that have been created for those movies so they will get the ideas but definitely, it's not a prediction.

Our future can only be known by God. Science fiction or everybody else can make predictions about our future. Its only God who holds our future. Actually, not knowing our future is good. It makes life a lot more interesting. Because if you already know your future, you will not be happy in life. For example, if you just know that you will die today you will be sad before you die. Because you want to enjoy your life more so its better that you don't know your future yet.

Science fiction context seems to be a phantasm but in the contrary it sometimes predicts some futuristic aspects that may happen sooner. Sci-fi prove it several times that it can predict the future, gather data into the internet to see what I'm talking about.

Exactly. I still don't agree that science can predict future. It's impossible to happen because the bible only can say what really is going to happen in the future and this is something science what against about. Science starting not to believe that earth is not round but flat, it was written in bible that the earth is round so its really impossible that science can predict future.

Predict? No. But I definitely think they serve in some cases as a warning to humans about the direction our species is headed in, in some facets...And the dangers of what can happen if we don't put ourselves in check sometimes.

I definitely think they serve in some cases as a warning to humans about the direction our species is headed in

There is this science fiction story about big game hunters who travel into the past to kill T-Rex. One of the hunters makes (what to him seems to be) a small mistake which radically changes the future. And he pays dearly for it.

So yeah, I do agree that science fiction does warn people about possible scenarios should scientists continue messing with things like cloning, creating chimeras in the labs, attempting to build super-soldiers and so on.

As for science fiction predicting the future, I think it is possible for people (not just science fiction writers) to speculate that something might change in future and odds are they could be right. A good example would be how robots will do most of the work now done by humans. That's not prediction per se, it is something you know will happen any time in future.

I honestly don't know. First of all, they are just Science "Fiction" books. But, we never know, everything is possible with Science. We may have read something that a man who travels through time has written. We never know.

This is a really tricky topic. But I must say that there are some fiction book really gives us a glimpse of the future. We can say that some artist or inventor get their idea on the books they read. So i think books can't really predict the future but gives other people hope, encouragement and a lot of good ideas.